Columbia Borough police say no one was shot in town Monday morning, despite an initial dispatch report that sent officers to the 100 block of Locust Street. Dispatchers had said police were called to a shooting there just before 9:45 a.m., but the real story turned out to be far less alarming for residents of the small Lancaster County borough.
According to WGAL, police said an ambulance had actually been called to an address in town to check on someone who had been shot in another jurisdiction on a prior date, not in Columbia itself. The clarification came after the initial dispatch call raised the possibility of an active shooting scene in the borough.
That earlier report had pointed specifically to the 100 block of Locust Street, with dispatchers describing a shooting occurring there just before 9:45 a.m. Monday. But as more details emerged, it became clear the injury at the center of the call was not connected to anything that happened in Columbia that morning.
Victim Was Shot in York on Sunday, Police Say
Police say the reported shooting victim had actually been shot a day earlier, on Sunday, in York, according to a report from Yahoo News. The ambulance sent to the Columbia address Monday was there to check on that person's condition, not to respond to a new shooting within borough limits.
The scene on Locust Street had cleared by 11 a.m. Monday, the outlet reported, and dispatchers said there was no danger to the public at any point during the response. Dispatchers released no additional details about the original call, according to WGAL's report.
Not the First Mix-Up in Columbia
Monday's confusion echoes a separate incident in Columbia in which police initially responded to a report of a person being shot, only to determine afterward that the call had been falsely reported, according to an earlier WGAL report. In that case, police said there were no shots fired and no one was shot or injured. That earlier incident is a distinct case and isn't evidence of what triggered Monday's dispatch report, but it underscores how quickly fragmented emergency calls can spark alarm in the small river town before all the facts are confirmed.
WGAL has reached out to Columbia Borough police for more information on Monday's incident. For now, the bottom line from police is straightforward: no one was shot in Columbia Borough on Monday, even as the morning's dispatch chatter briefly suggested otherwise.
